The Plan
by KAME
Summary: A Journey Fic....Something is wrong in Port Charles....Jason ends his relationship with Courtney without warning, but it is more than just meets the eye. My first attempt at a fanfic...please review!!!
1. In the Beginning

Chapter 1: The Fog  
  
Thick fog enveloped her, as she stood alone on the dock over looking the harbour. Her thoughts were swimming too fast to make any sense. She was trying to hold on to her emotions long enough to attempt to make sense out of what had just happened. It was just minutes ago when Jason.the man who she thought loved her more than life itself.told her that he wanted nothing to do with her anymore. She had been through this before when Sonny refused to let them be together, but there was something dramatically different about this situation despite the similarities. Something had changed within Jason. As he was talking to her, she saw no part of the man she loves, it was almost as if someone else was walking around pretending to be Jason.  
  
Wouldn't that make it easier, she thought, then maybe it wouldn't hurt as much as it did. At least then she would know that it wasn't her Jason who said all those hateful things. God, how was she going to get through this?  
  
i"I just convinced myself that I loved you. I can't love anyone. I thought that if I told you that I loved you there might be a chance that I would eventually feel something for you, but there is nothing there, my heart is empty. Being with you.it just doesn't make sense. I think its time that we both moved on with our lives and forget that each other exists. It will better that way",i  
  
It took every ounce of her being to push his hurtful words away.but no matter how hard she tried they kept screaming through her mind. It was too much to hold the tears in anymore, with her head in her hands, the tears flowed freely.  
  
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He walked through the park, obviously on a mission, with head down and a purposeful walk. He needed to tell them that he was successful, that everything went just as it was planned. The girl had been upset, just like he said she would be. Now that his part was done, it was up to her.what was her name again? Courtney? Yeah that was it..everything was up to her now. Would she be able to do what they wanted? The rest of the plan depended on it.  
  
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It wasn't necessarily the darkness that bothered him; he could deal with that. Oddly enough it was actually comforting in a way. It was often in the darkest parts of the night when he would be lying in bed listening to her breath as she slept peacefully beside him, safely tucked into his arms. The memories of her were what were giving him hope that he was going to get out of this hole. The thought of her also made his breath quicken with knowledge of what they were doing to her...and he could do nothing. Nothing but sit here in this confining cell and hope that someone figured out what was happening before it was too late. It was the powerlessness of being stuck in here that was eating away at him. He knew what they were planning, he had heard the guard talking to someone on the phone..did they think that just because he couldn't see them that he couldn't hear them? He had to think of something, and fast. He was pretty sure that they had already begun the plan...he didn't have much time left. 


	2. Revelations

Chapter 2: Revelations  
  
Carly peeked in through the front window of the restaurant. She was glad to see that she was able to catch Courtney before she was able to practice her avoiding act again. Over the past few days she had made some real progress towards perfecting it.  
  
"Hey Sweetie, we haven't seen you in days, what's up?" Carly asked suspiously.  
  
"Oh hey Carly" Courtney replied without looking up from the sheaf of papers surrounding her "Things have been really busy here at work" she explained.  
  
"Hmmm, really. That's kinda strange. I was in here yesterday, and the day before, and even the day before that, and you were nowhere to be seen. Things are that busy are they?" she was determined to get the answer out of her despite Courtney's obvious attempt to remain distracted by her paperwork.  
  
When Courtney looked up at Carly, it was apparent how bad things really were. Courtney had deep, dark bags surrounding what appeared to be lifeless eyes. There was no hint anywhere of the happiness in her eyes that Carly was so accustomed to seeing. This was bad, really bad.  
  
"Tell me what it is, is it Jason, oh my god it is, is he hurt?! I seen him yesterday though and he seemed fine, oh my god when did it happen?Today? ohmygod It's Mike, he had another heart attack. I have to call Sonny. What happened, tell me right now!" Carly exclaimed, not pausing to take to a breath between her sentences.  
  
"Whoa, whoa Carly calm down! Daddy's fine, and so is Jason, as a matter of fact, he is better than fine, now that he has rid his life of everything that was wrong" No matter how hard she tired the bitterness in her voice was still there. She didn't mean to sound so jilted but her heart was still too raw from the other night to be able to think about the situation with anything less than animosity. Even as she thought about it, she could feel her heart breaking all over again.  
  
Carly was nothing short of completely confused. Jason got rid of what? The only thing that Carly could think of that was wrong with Jason's life was Elizabeth, but he had rid himself of her a long time ago. What else could it be? No, it couldn't be.. Jason's increased irritability with her, his distance from her in the past few days were all pointing to one thing. But it still didn't make any sense at all. Jason loves Courtney with his whole being; there would be nothing that could stop that. He couldn't have left Courtney, could he?  
  
"What do you mean Courtney, what did Jason get rid of?" Carly asked cautiously, fearing the worst.  
  
Courtney got up abruptly from where she was sitting and turned her back to Carly and tried to appear busy cleaning the coffee machine. Once again the tears came, and she was helpless to stop them. Her shoulders shook with the sobs that were overtaking her, and she turned to Carly for the support that she desperately wanted.  
  
"Oh Carly" Courtney choked out between sobs "It was horrible, he said so many mean things..hateful.he was just so hateful.never loved me..never did"  
  
Carly was having a hard time understanding everything that Courtney was saying, she was crying so hard; but she did get the important parts. Jason had left her, what the hell was going on here? As Carly sat with Courtney crying in her arms, she knew that there had to be a logical explanation for what had happened, and she was going to figure it out, no matter what. She had a plan.  
  
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The dark shadow outside the window of Kelly's moved to get a better view of the women inside. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he was confident that they were unknowingly going along with his agenda. It was all coming together.slowly, but it was working.  
  
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There was really no point in devising another plan for escaping. He had already tired everything he could think of to escape time and time again with no luck. Not only was he locked in a small, dark cell; but he was locked in his own personal prison of memories. It wasn't anything in particular, a smile here, a kiss there. Little things that just kept creeping into his mind when he wasn't thinking of anything else. Just enough to make him feel not quite whole, like there was an important piece of him missing. Then there were the other thoughts, the ones that he tried not to think about.like what the scum that was keeping him here would do to her. Would she realize what was going on? God, please let her know what was going on. He wasn't one to give into emotions, he wasn't even supposed to have emotions, so the doctors said. But what was this ache deep in his chest? He needed to get out of here and get to her before it was too late. 


	3. Realizations

Carly blew past Max with his perfunctory "Hello, Mrs. Corinthos" without so much as a second glance, and continued on through the PH doors.  

"Sonny? Sonny, where are you?! SONNY?!" Carly threw down her coat and purse on the couch and ran upstairs trying to find Sonny, when he appeared from the kitchen.  

"Whoa, whoa…cool it Carly.  What happened?  What's wrong?" Sonny could see that something was really bothering Carly, but he wasn't sure what it was.

Carly let Sonny led her over to the couch and told all about Courtney and what she told Carly today.  "Sonny, I have never seen her that distraught-it was as if someone, well Jason- had just run her heart over with a flat bed truck- have you seen Jase lately? Did he say anything about this?"

Sonny stared ahead as he thought about the last time he had seen Jason.  He wasn't going to tell Carly this, but Jason was acting strange the last time that they were together. Jason had actually called Sonny late one afternoon asking Sonny to meet him at the warehouse as soon as he could get away.  Sonny demanded to know what it was all about, but Jason had told him that he would fill Sonny in at the warehouse. When Sonny arrived at the warehouse, Jason was pacing back and forth in the foyer waiting for Sonny to arrive.    

"Sonny- listen, there's a problem.  A big problem." Jason didn't even give Sonny a chance to say anything before he launched into the explanation of what was going on.  It appeared that lately some new opponent from New York City was trying to push their way into Sonny's territory. And the more Jason refused them, the more determined they were becoming.  The last refusal had resulted in a message being sent that couldn't be ignored.  One of Sonny and Jason's shipments was intercepted on its way to Port Charles.  The driver and passenger were killed, letting Jason and Myer know that they meant business, next time it could be someone in their family, or even themselves marked as the target.  Jason had tried to find any background information on this newcomer, but there was none to be found.  It didn't make any sense, and Jason needed to let Sonny in on this and see if they could figure out their next move.  

As Sonny recalled that particular afternoon, he began to wonder if something else had happened with this situation, and Jason just hasn't had the time to tell him yet.  Sonny got up abruptly from the couch and told a startled Carly that he would be back in a bit; he had some business to take care of, and left the PH before Carly could get a word in.  

As Carly watched Sonny leave the PH, she had a strange sensation that things were a lot worse than she could have ever imagined. 

**********

Courtney looked around Kelly's one last time before leaving.  The floors were mopped twice; the paperwork was all done and rechecked, and rechecked again. All the day's dirty dishes were done, and there simply wasn't anything else to keep Courtney there any longer.  As she glanced down at the shining floor, she debated mopping it just one more time, or maybe she should go over the new schedule again, just to make sure that there were no mistakes.  _Courtney!  Stop it; you just have to face it, and deal! _She repeated this over and over, her new mantra so to speak.  It was just that nights were the worst.  It was in the dark, when she was willing sleep to come that the memories came flooding back.  Lots of little things: a stolen kiss in the middle of a hectic shift at Kelly's; or Jason calling her when he was away just to wish her sweet dreams and to tell her that he loved her. Now, when she was lying alone in the bed that they used to share together, she is bombarded with these memories, ones that used to bring her endless happiness; that now only bring endless heartache.  Courtney sighed and got out from underneath the covers and looked at the floor beneath her.  _It could do with another cleaning _she thought as she pondered the alternative of trying to get to sleep;_ or maybe even two._  

***********

Bit by bit, Jason could feel the restraints binding his wrists getting loose... but not quite loose enough to release him.  It was hard to tell what day it was.  He hoped that if he was able to get out of this place, that it wasn't too late, he could stop this plan from going through.  God, how long _was_ it that he was in here?  Two days?  Five?  He was shocked to realize that he had no idea.  _What if it has already happened? _Jason returned his attention to his restraints with renewed vigor.  Time was running out, faster than Jason could imagine.  

***********

As he watched her move inside the well light apartment in the middle night, he wondered if it was time yet for the next part of his plan. Things were going better than he had expected; and as he checked that he had everything he needed, he decided that now was just a good as time as ever to keep things moving and made his way to front door of the apartment building. 


End file.
